The Flickering Doctor
by Lythande1972
Summary: Rating changed for coarse language. The Doctor suddenly disappears, leaving Amy and Rory stranded in the TARDIS with no way to reach him. Will he ever come back? How can they help him? Takes place after The Big Bang. Please R&R - more chapters in store!
1. Chapter 1

"Oh no, no, no. Definitely not. No, he's not at all like a vampire. Much mo-"

That was the first time the doctor winked out. It was so brief that Amy almost missed it. He was in the middle of a sentence and he just...flickered, like a bad television signal. He was there, and then he wasn't. Then immediately he was there again.

"-ore blue, with tentacles-" and then he stopped.

Slowly, he put his hand to his head, as if he was in pain. He turned to look at Amy, a puzzled look.

"Did I just...? ...Did ...you just...?"

"Doctor, you...are you ok? It looked like you...disappeared for a moment. I think. Did you see it, Rory?"

Rory looked up from his task on the other side of the TARDIS console. "What? Did I miss something?"

The doctor waved his hands dismissively, "No, no, no, definitely nothing. I think. No, I'm sure of it."

He paused again and his hand returned to his temple. He seemed to look inward. "Blasted headache, though."

Amy was still standing on the other side of the console; now she moved closer. She felt Rory step up behind her. "It wasn't nothing, Doctor; I saw it. You..._flickered_. Like you went somewhere. Or...like you...you're..." she paused, thinking. "You're not a _hologram_, are you?" And she pushed at him, half-joking, and also half-seriously. But his jacket was its same solid tweedy self under her palm, and his shoulder was firm and warm below that. He smiled at her.

"Back off, Pond. I'm as real as an Ood. But...hm...flickered...now that's _tricky_..." He looked around, losing himself in thought, half-smiling. "I would like to know what..." His voice trailed off as he held up the sonic screwdriver and took a reading from the air.

"Interesting...I wonder what that-"

And like a switch had been tripped, he vanished.

Amy and Rory sputtered. "Doctor? Doctor! DOCTOR!" They spun around, looking all over the central room of the TARDIS. He did not reappear.

Amy turned accusingly to Rory. "What did you do?"

"Me? You're loony. I was just standing here with you. What did HE do? That's the question!"

Amy turned back to look at the spot where the Doctor had been. "You're right, you're right, I'm sorry. You're right. DOCTOR!" She yelled again, uselessly. She skittered over and knelt where he had been standing. She peered at the floor, then looked up, staring at the console where his right hand has been resting.

No secrets were revealed. The Doctor did not reappear.

She felt a sudden yank on her shoulder as Rory pulled her away from her crouch. "Ow! Rory!"

"Don't stand there! What if he just...comes back? You could be...I dunno, squished or something..."

"Oh." She hadn't thought of that. "yeah. Well, what do we do?"

Rory looked a little paler. "Well he'd better be back, yeah? I don't know how to fly this thing, d'you? I don't even know where we are!"

Amy's nose wrinkled in thought and worry. "No, me neither. Let's find out. Maybe we can get help." Ignoring the alarmed look on Rory's face, she pushed past him and ran to the door.

"No! Amy! Wait! Don't open it! Who knows where we are!"

"Exactly," said Amy, with satisfaction. She grabbed the door and flung it open - and stumbled immediately backwards from the blinding light that violently poured over her. It was like a blow, forcing her back into the room. It burned through her eyelids, heating her skin. She couldn't see outside the TARDIS at all. It was as though they were in the middle of the sun.

"Ow! Shut the door!" She dimly heard Rory run up to her, and together they pushed the door shut. They leaned against it, gasping. Slowly they sank to the floor.

"Well, that's a dead end," said Amy drily.

"Where the _hell_ are we?" sputtered Rory.

Amy ignored the question. "Can't fly it, can't leave it, don't even know how to use the toaster oven..." She paused, thinking. Then: "Ooh, the phone!"

She jumped up and ran back over to the console, and grabbed the old handset. "Hello?" she shouted into the plastic. "Is anybody there?"

There was no one on the other end. She glared at the typewriter and the vacuum tubes in front of her, frustrated; stood on her tippytoes, craning her neck to look above her, looking for any instructions on Who To Call In Case of Flickering Timelord.

Nothing appeared.

"Rory, have you ever seen him dial this thing? Hello?" she said again, as if something had changed. It hadn't. The phone was useless.

With a frustrated sigh, she dropped the handset back into its cradle. She looked at Rory, feeling petulant. "Well," she said, feigning certainty, "he'll be back."

Rory was not hiding his panic well. "He better be, or we're screwed!"

Amy sputtered and tried to deny it, and then caved. "...Yeah...but we won't be. He'll come back. He will."

Wisely, Rory bit his tongue. Because he couldn't think of anything else to do, he silently offered Amy his hand. They sat down on a step. Amy curled up in Rory's arm. He hugged her tight. Both of them stared at the spot where the doctor had disappeared.

Neither of them spoke the thought out loud: What if he never returns?


	2. A brief return

They sat curled up together for a long time. Amy felt her legs getting stiff. For the first time, her beloved TARDIS felt ...alien. Cold. Unwelcoming.

They didn't belong here. Not without him. If only at least River were here. River would have known what to do, how to fly the TARDIS...something.

She fought hard to ignore the growing fears in the pit of her stomach. How long would he be gone? Would he really come back? Was he in trouble?

Was he dead?

Next to her, she felt Rory swallow and knew he was frightened, too.

Minutes ticked by...then an hour...then two...three...

Out of nowhere, Amy thrust herself up to her feet. Then she fell back down again, smack onto Rory, grimacing. Her legs were asleep. "Crap!"

"Hey!" yelled Rory. "A little warning would be nice?"

"I was tired of sitting," she growled, trying to wiggle her toes. Her legs felt like tree trunks. Electrified tree trunks, full of needles. "Ow ow ow ow _ow_..." she muttered, feeling impotent.

"Your legs are asleep," said Rory helpfully.

"Shut up."

Slowly the aches subsided and she could move again. She pulled herself back to her feet, groaning as loudly and theatrically as she could.

Turning, she limped back over to the phone. "Really, there's no way to make this thing work? There's got to be something we can - "

FLASH.

The doctor was in front of her. _Right_ in front of her, right where he'd been when he disappeared. If she reached out she could touch him. He was standing just as he'd been, holding up the sonic screwdriver, a look of wonder on his face. He was still talking.

"- wave is - "

And then he toppled.

He fell forward, collapsing onto the console of the tardis. His face was white. He dropped the sonic screwdriver and it bounced onto the floor, rolling over to where Rory was still sitting, frozen, stunned.

Amy leaped forward and grabbed the doctor's shoulders, catching him before he could slip down to the floor. "Doctor! What happened? Are you ok? Can you hear me?"

"Doctor!" yelled Rory helpfully.

For a second or so, the Doctor did not seem to know where he was. Amy was holding him up. He was still looking towards the center of the TARDIS, a dazed look on his face. He blinked, and then slowly, his face turned to look at her.

"Pond?" he said, and his voice was changed. Low, and quiet. Amy could feel him shaking in her arms. She pulled him closer to her, his face almost touching hers.

"Doctor, _what happened_?" No answer. "Here, you need to sit. Let's sit. Rory, bring me that blanket." She turned him and began to move him to sit on the steps. He let her move him a few steps - and then abruptly, stronger than he'd seemed, he shoved her away from him _hard_.

"Hey!" yelled Amy. She fell back and hit herself on the typewriter. "Ow!"

"_Don't touch me!_" he hissed. "Don't touch me, Pond - you either, Rory," he said, turning to face the man bringing him a blanket. "Nobody touch me. This will kill either of you if you get sucked in." He was still standing where she had left him, shaking. He looked dreadful - pale and sick and wobbly.

"What will, Doctor? What will kill us? What happened to you?"

"No time for that now," he said, as Amy _knew_ he would. "Rory, throw me that screwdriver. And _stay away_ from me. I've got to get us out of here."

Both of them ran up to the other sides of the console. "Get away from where? Where are we? Can we help?"

"Shh. No." Pause. "Yes. Yes. Amy - when I say go, push that chrome lever there to the left. No, your other left. There, like that. Ready?" He was fussing with dials, staring at a screen, pushing knobs and who knew what else. "Ready, _go_!"

Amy pushed the lever to the left, hard. The TARDIS lurched horribly to its side and Amy was flung to the floor. "Ow!" she yelled. "Oi, I'm getting tired of being bounced around!"

Rory came over and helped her up. The Doctor ignored them. He was staring at his sonic screwdriver, and he looked worried. "Nope, no, no, that didn't do it. We're still stuck." He stood still for a moment. "Hmm..."

Then, "OK, Pond, I want you to try turning things to the right this time.

"On my mark - now!"

Amy barely had time to scramble back to her station. On cue, she pushed the lever HARD in the other direction. The TARDIS obliged by careening wildly, flinging her and Rory to the edges of the room.

The Doctor managed not to be dislodged from his place at the console. He stared at something on a screen, watched the pistons of the TARDIS move, and said nothing.

Amy and Rory got up, rubbing aches all over. Amy rushed back to her spot in front of her lever, grinning. Now that the Doctor was back, this was fun! "Did that do it, Doctor?"

The Doctor was quiet, staring at his readout. Slowly he seemed to relax, his shoulders lowering. He took a deep breath. "Yes," he finally said. "Yes. I think we're out of it."

He turned, leaning with his back against the instrument panels, and sighed. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his temples. "Oh crikey, that was not ever fun."

Amy started to walk around to him. His head snapped up, his hand reaching out to warn her off. "Not yet, Pond. I'm not sure that we're clear. Don't touch me."

Amy whuffed a frustrated whuff. "OK, OK, but from what? Will you tell us what's going on, please?"

The Doctor sighed again. "I think it's a time wave. Like the vortex manipulator, but on a much grander scale. Think of it as..." he grinned, "the _Titanic_ of vortex manipulators." He gazed thoughtfully up at the central TARDIS pistons. "We must have been passing though it, and it synced up with me. Moved me into the future. We're attractive to time waves, you see."

Rory shook his head as if moving the information around inside of his skull would help him make sense of it. The look on his face made it clear that that he wasn't succeeding.

Amy frowned. "You said the vortex manipulator was bad for you."

"Oh yes," nodded the Doctor. "Yes indeed. very bad. And this is much worse. That was not fun, let me tell you. But I'm a timelord, I can stand it. It would take maybe, I dunno... four trips to kill me? The longer the trip, the nastier the effects. But you? Rory, you'd be fried on the first jump." He turned to Amy. "Pond, you might last one jump, but not two."

"Hey!" protested Rory. Amy tried unsuccessfully not to look pleased.

"What does it do to you?"

The Doctor was starting to look a little better. There was some pinkish color in his cheeks, and his eyes had some sparkle. He pulled an apple out of his jacket pocket and took a bite. "Crystallizes the cells," he said, around apple bits. "Freezes them. It's cold in the parts of space where time doesn't exist, and the body can't handle it. Do it too much or too fast, and you're very quickly dead. It's going to take me quite a few hours to fully defrost, I think." He leaned over to show Amy the apple he was crunching. "See what it did here?"

The apple was partially frozen. Under the rosy skin it looked a little like a snowball. She could see intricate shards of ice where he'd bitten it.

Amy's stomach gave a nasty turn.

He lifted the sonic screwdriver again, and read what he saw there. "Yep, it's a time wave, and we're still not through it. I think we're OK, but just in case, don't -"

FLASH.

He was gone.


	3. Fighting for his life

The doctor was gone for over a day.

Amy paced around the TARDIS console, carefully avoiding the spot from which the doctor had last disappeared. She veered away from Rory when he tried to comfort her. "Dammit, dammit, dammit," she muttered. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, _dammit_!"

He'd said he could survive three jumps. This was his third. And when was it going to end? What if he's been pushed forward a month? Or a _year_? They'd starve to death waiting for him...

Not that this thought really mattered. She could give a rat's ass about herself right now.

She just wanted the doctor, her doctor, back safe.

She fingered the scrap of paper in her pocket where she'd written down the questions that they had for the doctor.

If he were conscious when he returned. If he ever returned.

_How do we stop this? How do we fly the TARDIS out of here?_

_What do we do if you jump forward in time again, and never come back? How long should we wait?_

She hoped they wouldn't have time to ask the second question, because every time she thought about it, she wanted to cry.

Rory saw the tears in her eyes and reached out again. Abruptly she stopped and surrendered. She let him hold her, her tears puddling on his shoulder.

But within five minutes she was pacing again.

Hour after hour after hour.

Until:

FLASH.

Amy saw it from out of the corner of her eye - she'd finally allowed herself to rest, her head cradled in Rory's lap. With a convulsive leap she flew up and across the TARDIS to where the doctor appeared. Rory followed behind, second banana as always.

The doctor appeared leaning on the TARDIS console, in mid-sentence, just as he'd left. But no words came out. Instead, he gasped - choked - and staggered. Blood flew into the air as he coughed.

The apple fell to the floor from a flailing hand and smashed like a glass toy into crystal shards of ice. Amy's feet crunched on them as she ran.

Despite Rory's protests - "Don't touch him!" - she caught the doctor as he fell. His head hit her collarbone hard. It left red stains on her shirt.

With shaking arms, she lowered him down and laid him gently on his side. He was trembling, staring at nothing. Blood was sprayed around his ears and nose. He made an awful wheezing sound as he breathed. Amy took a trembling hand in hers while Rory tried to figure out what was bleeding.

"Doctor?" she asked. "Doctor, can you hear me? _Doctor_!" She put her face in front of his, tried to meet his eyes. "_Doctor!_"

Slowly he focused on her, and then she felt him attempt to pull his hand away from hers. "G...get away, g-go..." he wheezed at her. His voice was weak, raspy and awful to hear. Something gurgled in his throat.

He glared at her from that pale, bloodied face. "_Let... g-go_!"

Amy felt herself become very calm and focused. She glared right back at him, and held his hand tight. "I'm not letting go until you help us, Doctor. We need to save you and we don't know how. So tell me RIGHT NOW, and I promise I'll let go. _How do we fly the TARDIS out of this mess?_"

The doctor's face was strained and sick. "_No...time..._" He kept trying to pull his hand away, but she held fast.

"_Stop saying that and just tell me! NOW!"_

His eyes rolled back in his head and closed. For a moment Amy thought he was unconscious. Then he spoke, so quietly that Amy had to bend close to hear.

"Damn you...P...Pond." She almost laughed.

"Three...steps.

"Silver...knob...up.

"Wooden...lever...down." He raised a trembling hand and vaguely pointed. Amy could see where he'd been standing, saw what she hoped were the right ones.

"Chrome lever ...right." He stopped, and a faint smile appeared. "But...you know...that...part." His eyes closed.

"OK, ok, is that it? What do we do if it doesn't work?" She shoved her face even closer to his, but he didn't answer. His hand went limp in hers.

"Doctor!" she shouted. "Doctor! It didn't work before! What do we do if it doesn't work again? Doctor! Dammit!" She shook him, praying he would open his eyes. "Doctor!"

But he was beyond reach.

And then Rory, who had showed admirable restraint, lost patience and yanked the woman he loved away from danger. "Dammit, Amy, he said not to touch him. Enough. What if he goes again and takes you with him? We know what to do, let's do it! Come on!"

Amy wanted to protest but knew he was right. "OK. OK. I've done the chrome lever part, I'll do that again. You take the wood and silver."

"Well, which ones are they?" demanded Rory. "I see...like...four different silver knobs here."

"Well, I don't know!" hollered Amy back at him. "Let's try them all!"

"OK, ok, let's be calm about this. This one, well...is a door knob, and that's a toilet plunger...that can't be right.

"I bet it's _this _one. Let's try this one."

"Right!" yelled Amy. "Just say when!"

"On my mark...ready...set...

"Oh no, wait."

Amy felt frustration threaten to rip out of her and do serious harm to someone. Any minute now, the doctor could disappear, and he'd be _dead _when he returned. _"What is it? What?_"

"Well," said Rory, "I...I can't reach both levers at once. I don't know how we'll set them all at once. His arms - "he glanced at the prone, bloodied man on the floor - "they're much longer than mine."

"Well, figure it out!" Amy was shrieking now. "Just figure it out! Use your foot or something!"

"Right, right. OK. With my foot. Ready? One - two - three!"

They both pushed with all their might. Nothing happened.

"DAMMIT!" hissed Amy. "How do we even know if it worked?"

"Nope, nope," said Rory thoughtfully. "I don't think that was it. Maybe it IS the toilet plunger. 'Course, that one's even further from the other lever...but maybe if I stand on the console..."

They tried again and again, Rory contorting himself into crazy positions to try and hit both parts at once, and still: nothing happened. Over and over. Amy was scared to look down at the doctor, terrified that at any point she would see the _flash _and he would be gone. And this time - trip four - she just didn't want to think about what a mess he'd be. If he ever showed up again.

"Hurry, Rory!" she pleaded. "He can't do another one!"

"I know, I know...Here, let's do this. I'll try your lever, and you try mine. I think it might be these two, but I wonder if it will respond better to you."

Amy didn't care what they did as long as it worked. She ran around to where Rory was standing. The doctor lay unconscious just inches from her feet. She wanted to weep. She felt a deep desire to go to him, to hold him, to try to heal his broken body.

Instead she swallowed, carefully looked anywhere else, and focused on her question: "Which ones are you using?"

He showed her and she climbed up on the console, foot on the silver knob, hand stretched as far as it can reach to touch the wooden lever. "Are you sure it's these two?"

He grinned. "Nope. But we'll keep trying till we hit it, I promise, OK?"

"OK." She took a deep breath. "One...two..three!"

And finally, something happened! The TARDIS gave a wild lurch. Amy wasn't braced and she flew off the console and landed hard next to the doctor's outstretched hand. She smacked her head on the floor. "Ow! Crap."

She moaned and slowly sat up, holding her head. "Ow...ow..." Rory came over and inspected the back of her head.

"Oh, yeah, you've already got a goose-egg. That's going to hurt."

She glared at him. "It already does. Did that do it? Do you think that did it?"

Rory looked up at the Doctor's screens as if they made any sense to him. They didn't.

"Well, we did something. But I don't know if it was right. Think we should keep trying?"

"Let's ask him. Maybe he'll know." She turned to the doctor, carefully not touching him, one hand still on her throbbing head. "Doctor? Wake up! Doctor! Did we do it?"

"Amy, be careful." warned Rory from behind her.

"Don't - "

But she did.

She reached out to the doctor's arm to try and shake him awake - and -

_something -_

_flashed - _

- she felt a little dizzy -

- a deep, _awful _cold -

...and then Rory was staring her in the face.

Hadn't he been behind her?

_And when did he grow a beard?_

And then she couldn't see anything anymore. It was like her body exploded. She felt blood pouring out of her nose and her ears and a thousand points of needles inside of each joint. Her head was splitting open and she couldn't tell which way was up...

She collapsed into Rory's arms, and felt nothing after that.


	4. Rory, alone

_17 days earlier/Day 1_

Only one person was left.

"Fuck! FUCK! Dammit! No! Amy, you fucking idiot! Aaah..." Rory screamed in frustration and lifted his eyes to the heavens, as if that could do any good. She was really gone. The love of his life had freaking TOUCHED THE DOCTOR and been sucked away to the future and she was NEVER GOING TO COME BACK. I'm trapped here in this damn sterile machine alone for ever, he thought wildly. He couldn't even feel the tears streaming down his face as he roared in impotent anger and spun wildly, as if there were enemies to fight.

"Ah FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" he screamed again. His chest felt small and crushed, far too small to hold his panicking, breaking heart... the beat was deadly slow and huge, like a bomb inside of him...

Somewhere, from a distance, a calmer Rory wondered how long he could panic like this before he just keeled over. "Oh, that'd be good. The two of them god knows where and me, here in the TARDIS, dead as a doornail. FUCK. OK. Think, Rory. Think. Calm down. Get a hold of it." He forced himself to stop screaming, to stop spinning, to sit and try to focus. He wiped the tears on the back of his hand.

OK. OK. She isn't dead, he thought - I've gotta believe that she isn't dead. He said she could survive a jump. _One _jump. She'll be back. I waited two thousand years for her - he shuddered at the memory - I can wait a few more hours. Just a few more hours.

Then what will I do to keep her from jumping away again? He fought to stay focused and think, his hand rubbing his jaw hard enough to leave a red mark.

If I get her away from touching the doctor, she should be fine. That's my number one priority. I'll just wait right here and as soon as they reappear, I'll grab her away.

Then what? The doctor will be dead, probably. Dammit...We've got to get _ourselves _out of here. And Amy...well, he couldn't escape the voice in his head that told him that when Amy reappeared, she would at best be in very bad shape.

His chest was still heaving but his heartbeat felt closer to normal. He looked at the TARDIS console and thought.

_Day 2_

Rory woke alone and cold, his cheek smashed against the floor of the tardis. He pulled the rough blanket off of himself and sat up. He felt depression hanging on him, pulling him down, to where all he wanted to do was go back to sleep...

_No_, he thought. I have to figure this out. She _will _come back. She just _will_. And I need to be ready.

By that evening (or as close to evening as he could tell inside a windowless time machine), he had put together the best system that he could think of. He'd stripped the shirt off of his back and torn it down the middle to make two long ribbons of cloth. Tied together, they were long enough to reach from one half of the TARDIS console to the other. He'd tied this homemade gearshift tightly to Amy's chrome lever, and left the other end where he could reach it from the other side.

Now he had a way to pull all three levers at once.

If she ever came back.

_Day 6_

Still no sign of anybody's return.

Rory kept himself as distracted as he could with exercise and exploring the TARDIS console. His shirt hung where he'd tied it, as useless as Rory himself.

He tried not to think of the worst, but it was staring him a little closer in the face every morning.

_Day 12_

Rory's beard was coming in well, now. It itched, but it helped to keep him warm in his new, cold, small world. He'd started talking to himself. He felt a little like a beast in a terrarium. Was somebody up there watching him? Might he expect a treat to be thrown into the TARDIS occasionally?

"Crap," he said. "I'm really going insane."

_Day 16_

No change. Nothing moved in his little world. He was starting to wonder why he was hanging on at all. Every night Amy reappeared in his dreams, and begged him to save her. Every night, he tried, and failed.

Every morning, he woke up a little later, cold, alone...and a little closer to the edge.

_Day 18_

_POP_

And there she was. Right in front of him.

Was he dreaming? His thoughts flew and his head spun. He couldn't be sure of anything anymore. _Please God, _he thought,_ let this be real - let this be Amy - it isn't! It can't be! It is! _

In the first tiny second after she appeared, her eyes met his. And she started to smile. And his whole world became warm and soft and wonderful... It _was _her! _She's back, you're back, you're here_! He reached out to her, tears already pouring down his face -

But he was totally unprepared for what happened next. He'd seen the doctor's re-appearance before, seen him bruised and frozen and battered...but that had happened gradually. Over three jumps. And that was the doctor. Not his fiancee...

As quickly as she'd appeared, Amy's eyes rolled back in her head. She sputtered, choked, and was suddenly covered in blood. Stunned, he managed to catch her as she collapsed. She was unconscious before he even understood what was going on. Blood and ice crystals smeared everywhere and made her slippery in his arms.

His heart was pounding. He had no air, no thoughts...and then he saw that the doctor had also reappeared, lying unconscious, frozen, and very still on the floor next to Amy. And Rory remembered what he had to do.

Roughly, moving as fast as he could, he jerked Amy several feet away so that there was no chance of her accidentally touching the doctor. Her hair was filled with ice. With shaking hands he laid her down on the cold floor, wishing he had a blanket close by to cover her.

But there was no time for that. The doctor could get sucked away again at any moment - and it had already occurred to Rory that even though the doctor and Amy were no longer touching, who knew if she might disappear again too? Maybe now that it had happened once, she'd be "attractive" to the timewave, too...he couldn't risk it. He had to move fast.

He spent one more precious second to run his lips across her frozen forehead, his tears landing on her skin. "Amy...my love...I'll get us out of this!" he murmured into her hair.

Then, hating to tear himself away from her, he forced himself to run to the TARDIS console. Finally, _finally_! He was going to get a chance to save them all. _Please, please, let this work._

He climbed up on the console. He placed his foot on the silver knob. Stretched as far as he could to reach the wooden lever. And he grabbed his torn shirt-tail in his other hand, sent up one more prayer to anyone who might be listening, and _**YANKED **_with all of his might.

Unbelievably, after 18 days of rest, the TARDIS leapt as if stung by a bee - and kept going! The room whirled like a rollercoaster, flinging him to the edges of the room. Rory could have sworn it even turned upside-down. He was slammed into a wall. He lost track completely of where he was, and just closed his eyes and hung on as the room spun and dipped, jumped and wobbled...

Then it was over. Slowly, Rory's head stopped spinning. He blinked. He loosened the death grip that he had on a railing, and sat up. His head was throbbing. Every part of him felt bruised and battered.

His shirt was hanging in ribbons from the TARDIS console, totally shredded. Amy and the doctor had also been flung to the edges of the Tardis room, far from him. He saw Amy's red hair splayed out around her and his heart yearned to go to her, help her...but he had to know, first:

Had they made it? Or did he need to try again?

With a huge effort he forced his aching body up and he ran to the door._ Oh please, oh please_, he thought...l_et us be anywhere else...let us be out of the timewave...!_

He grabbed the heavy door and pulled, his eyes shaded from the blinding light that he knew would appear and show him that he'd failed...

...but it did not come.

The searing light of the timewave was gone. The TARDIS floated effortlessly, rocking gently, in open space. Rory was looking out at galaxies, suns, stars, and the void between...he could see a million stars and not a one had ever looked so beautiful to him.

_I did it! I did it! _

He allowed himself just a second to stand in thanks, drinking in the sights. Then Rory turned back inside the TARDIS, to go to his love, and to try to save her life.


End file.
